Stars above and stars below.
From the topmost floor of the high-rise hotel that he was standing on the balcony of, Venice under the night was like a cloudless starry sky under him. Quite literally, perhaps. After all, the biggest, shiniest places of the city were finally under his control; he was quite literally close to being the King of Venice behind the shadows; at least until he succeeded in his next step of becoming the King of the entirety of Italy.
A knock behind made him turn his head and the visitor addressed him.
"Signor Volta...... È qui."
On his subtle gesture, the man stepped away and a while later brought along someone with him into the room.
Volta turned around and walked inside from the balcony.
"I'm sorry... For your loss... It's a shame what happened to your family."
"Non mi diverto, Signor Volta..."
Volta grinned lopsidedly at the guest.
"Le chiedo scusa, Signor Rossi..."
~~~
Clicks of the computer mouse echoed across the entire study as the afternoon sunlight lit up the room, a few beams through the window lighting up the dust floating in the air, along with the smoke of the cigarette floating past. Danny scrolled across the rows of data in the monitor of the computer at the desk, strenuously staring at it with his squinted eyes.
"You don't understand the concept of breaks, do you?"
"I don't understand," Danny addressed Teresa, dragging in a puff of the half-burnt cigarette between his fingers while his sister leaning against the now-empty shelves billowed her hand through the smoke in disgust.
"What? The concept of breaks, or-"
"Why was he working for Volta when he had been receiving nothing at all in return?" Tossing his burning cigarette out through the open window, Danny made a few rapid clicks on the buttons of the mouse. "He seems to have had no possessions of his own. Volta never even paid him for all that information he was receiving about us."
"What was it that he was looking for here anyway?"
"That's a whole other question that I still don't have the answer to," he replied as Teresa bent down to stare at the screen. "Whatever it was, I don't think he managed to find out, because all the information Rossi forwarded was financial stuff, most of which Volta was unable to make use of. He did end up stealing and smuggling some of our goods, but, it didn't leave a big hole. He wouldn't have continued living with the L/n's for so long had he uncovered whatever it was."
"What about his fake I. D.?"
"Well, his fake I. D. can be sourced to Vittorio Volta. That's the only thing he gave him. Around the time Passione had finished putting its mark on Naples, Rossi seems to have contacted him after returning from overseas. Within a span of three months, they had only two meetings, during which the fake I. D. seems to have been set up. And then they proceeded to never meet again, and only stay in contact over phone, e-mails, and letters and parcels."
"You know I'm starting to think that he liked Volta. That doesn't sound okay, considering he literally killed his brothers."
"You don't say?" Danny swiveled the chair away from the computer desk and sighed. "He was quite the only straight-laced kid in the Rossi family, from what we now know of him. There seems to be no reason for him to do all this... What did we miss?"
"1986... He returned to Italy in 1986, didn't he?" Teresa mumbled.
"That sure is an important year for the L/n's."
"Sure is," Teresa added. "1986 is not only important for us, but for the entire Passione. That's when the gang surfaced and the L/n's swore their loyalty to Passione. Pretty much everything went downhill from then."
"I know you are referring to the obvious correlation of the death of Y/n's parents dying and Rossi meeting Volta in the same year, but that doesn't prove anyth-"
"Danny, where did he live before 1986?"
"Teresa's sudden interruption intrigued the man. "Why?"
She clicked her tongue and leaned in to work alongside her brother on the computer. "Alesso's style of doing things... I have a feeling I've read about something similar before."
~~~
As the guy in the uniform poured two cups of tea and took his leave, Volta gestured the guest to go ahead while he took a cup for himself as well. Rossi's eyes never left those of his host while he picked up his cup; but he wasn't even close to being unnerved.
"I suppose you'll get straight to the point as to why you're here, no?"
The teacup stopped before it could reach the Rossi's lips as the young man's eyes coldly stared back at Volta's.
He faintly smiled, exhaled nasally as he did. "Quite the impatient man. But I don't want to keep you waiting either." He sipped on his tea once and placed the cup on the saucer in his hand with a faint clink, continuing to speak. "Exchnage, Signore. I give you something, and you give me too."
"If you're talking about the properties, I don't think it belongs to you anymore. Rightfully, it belongs to me. You know, because of the pact we made."
"The pact you made with my brothers... And by force."
Volta nodded and continued nonetheless. "Besides, haven't you acquired a degree on something more...... professional? Something related to a catering business, I believe. You know, rather than you getting yourself into the dirty business, I can pay you back for the loss of your family by helping you open a ristorante or two."
"I don't care about paybacks; I'm least concerned with that. Just need a few documents in return for what I'm about to provide you with."
Furrowing his brows in curiosity of whatever documents this man had mentioned about, Vittorio leaned forward in his couch. "I do believe you aren't stupid enough to enter my area unprotected without a very valid reason. I'm expecting something amazing now. Well then, what is it that you bring to me?"
Rossi leaned back as he spoke. "A tip, Signor. I have something on the man you want to get rid of. The one who's been going by the title of Capo di Passione."
Vittorio's hand holding the teacup stopped in the middle of the air as his eyes glinted of the neon lights from outside the balcony. "You better have a convincing description of this, if you're going to be at it."
The Rossi looked rather confident. "Passione has taken up more than sixty percent of this country, and Venezia is next. Remember the name Polpo? He's going to send his men after you in a few months if you don't surrender."
Polpo that bastard, Volta thought to himself. Having left his side long ago when Passione surfaced had left him with disgust for his regard. Polpo, like many other supporters and partners of his, had betrayed him altogether.
"Like that's anything new!" Vittorio laughed. "And here I thought you were going to bring me some-"
"Of course, I haven't given you the tip yet."
Volta frowned in annoyance.
"I will offer you a complete detailed report with actual proof of direct links of Passione," he added, "provided I get what I want."
"And what is it that you want?"
"A new identity. And full protection against Polizia di Stato. That's what I want. Can you do it?"
Smacking his sweetened lips at the last sip of the tea, Vittorio chortled. "I thought you were a professional thief; not a gangster. What happened? Where did you fuck up this time, Alesso Rossi?"
Alesso Rossi defensively stared at the man who was now pulling out a box of cigarettes. "Don't be scared, I'm not telling anybody about it. Why don't you relax a little? Do you smoke?"
Placing the long been empty cup onto the coffee table, Rossi picked out a cigarette from the box offered to him. As the host finished lighting it up, Alesso leaned into his seat.
"You know," Vittorio reverberatingly spoke, "messing around with an embassy member was not the wisest on your part."
"How do you know?" following a deep drag of smoke, Rossi asked.
"Oh please, the news about the leak of critical government information reached me before it reached the news centers. I have my sources you know... So, tell me Alesso, were you aiming for a long shot by blackmailing a high-profile government official?"
Volta's mocking tone didn't amuse the Rossi a bit. "It was an accident. He went around as a businessman; I had no idea he worked at the defense research for that country."
"In any case, it's safe to assume you need a new identity to stop them from tailing you."
Alesso affirmatively looked at his host.
"I can do that. No problem. But there's a condition."
Rossi jolted up from his seat and aggressively held his fists below. "Signor Volta, there is only one condition and it's that you give me what I want in return of what I give -"
"The police is already on the lookout for you and nobody in Italia wants to deal with such an issue. Your only chance is me. This is your choice, Alesso. We can either co-operate, or you can choose to walk out of here and wait for the cops to come and arrest you any fine day."
Having forced himself to calm down, Alesso Rossi returned to his seat and took a drag of the cigarette in between his fingers. "What condition are we talking about?"
~~~
"Anything else, sir?"
"No, thank you very much," Danny addressed the flight attendant who followed by walking to a different seat. He turned around to see Teresa seated next to him, watching the clouds outside the window.
"You sure you don't want anything?" he asked his sister as he stirred the coffee in the paper cup the flight attendant had handed him.
"We really don't have any proof, do we?"
Danny gave out a tired sigh and rolled his eyes. "You're still at it? At least try relaxing on the flight. You-"
"I can't seem to wrap my head around the correlation. Rafael's way of working and the data leak case from 1985... Ales-"
"Shh... Shh shh shh...! You're being too loud!"
Teresa clicked her tongue and then lowered her voice. "I mean look at it! There are multiple cases of conned robberies from Austria and Germany; before pretending to be Rafael - the butler of the L/n manor, Alesso used to live in Austria and Germany. The way he sneaked into our gang and took away our information is too similar."
"And yet, for years he continued to live under the security of L/ns." He took a sip of the coffee and continued. "Hell, he even pretended to be a member of the gang."
"The Italian Police never found out about anything. Do you think Vittorio was involved in it?"
Danny nodded affirmative.
"No. Not making sense."
"What part of it is not making sense?"
Teresa groaned. "Vittorio has to have a reason to send Alesso! What was he looking for?! Assuming he did help him escape the investigations to great lengths, there has to be something that Volta wanted to know! Not quite sitting right with me, Danny."
Quiet and stoic, Danny plopped his head at the little table in front of him with defeat. "I tried investigating that for a whole year. I didn't get anywhere! All I know is that prior to coming to [Your country] and joining the gang as Rafael, he was in reality Alesso Rossi, and was working for Volta. I think we've gone over this countless times!"
"Why was it that he turned into a butler after the death of Y/n's parents again?" Teresa asked. "You were old enough to know, right?"
"Not really. I was still looking at things at face value, I was only a teenager."
"My theory," she interrupted, "is that Alesso wanted to be freed of the gang's duties so that he could stay at the manor for longer and continue his research. Think about it - he gets ample of time to investigate... whatever the fuck he was investigating, and no one would be suspicious of him because he had been a loyal for years. He had no reason to go back to Italy because they were looking for an Alesso Rossi. Italy doesn't even have an extradition treaty with us."
Danny's eyes widened. "Wow, you've... grown!"
The static-filled voice in the flight cabin interrupted and the passengers listened to the pilot speak.
"...... at an airspeed of 400 miles per hour. The time is 1:25 pm. The weather looks good and with the tailwind on our side we are expecting to land in Naples approximately fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. The weather in Naples is clear and sunny, with a high of 26 degrees for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. The inflight......"
"I'll tell you what," Danny whispered. "We'll get there and talk to the Boss about it."
"The Boss?" Teresa asked. "The new one?"
"Yeah. The new one. Don Gio. Heard he's very kind and thoughtful. We can bring this topic up at the meeting with him, how about that?"
Teresa shrugged. She was definitely looking forward to any answer, but she wasn't sure if she would ever find out whatever happened to the leader of Vespa.
'It's been a year,' she thought to herself, looking out the window at the clouds floating by. 'I hope she's happier now...'
~~~
Dove mi trovo......
Dove mi trovo...... esattamente?
È così buio... E... non fa male......
Am I dead? Finally? Forever......? No... That's near impossible now...... I can even hear something...... Footsteps...... Someone is approaching...... No...... Not again...... No...... No...... Don't......
"No! No! Non mi toccare! Non voglio morire! No! N-"
Diavolo stopped his frantic cries when he finally forced his eyes open to find himself laying on the bed in a dimly lit room. From the light peeking through the blinds of the shut window, however, one could tell it was bright daylight.
The thumping footsteps got louder and more clear as the seconds passed. He was too alert to have noticed the cat that had crawled under the bed he was sitting on. When the critter rubbed its head against his foot hanging down, he almost jumped. It softly growled and hopped onto his lap. Diavolo didn't like it but was too wary to even push it away. Who knew what would happen if he did?
Gulping his drying throat, he hesitantly shoved the cat on his lap aside anyway, which chortled on the push, followed by quietly leading him out the doorway.
The air was filled with the aroma of something sweet; bubbling of a pot filled with water could be clearly heard amidst the erratic footsteps and a faint humming. While a calming environment by definition, none of it seemed to ease his nerves one bit. The anticipation of what was coming next only continued to grow in him.
When he reached the little hall that led to a kitchen doorway across the living room, he almost gasped.
"You're awake! For a moment I thought somebody broke into the house. Perdonami!"
The lady who had just revealed herself as she was coming out with a pot from the kitchen chortled as Diavolo watched her, agape in shock.
"Anyway, I'm glad you're awake. Does it hurt anywhere? Do you need to see a doctor before we move ahead?"
Frozen, unable to believe his eyes, his shoulders weakened as he struggled to mutter under his breath.
"Why are you here...?"
"What...?"
Alerted on the woman taking steps towards him, Diavolo cautiously took several back, almost stumbling against the backrest of a couch behind him.
"No stop! Don't come any closer!"
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Don't!... I know you're going to kill me! I'm warning you!"
Diavolo mumbled unintelligibly, begging to be left alone. His body trembled as he sniffled through grunting cries, kneeling down on the cool marbled flooring. Tears rolled down his cheeks, a rare sight for possibly the only living person in the whole world who had seen him as he truly was.
"Boss..." you muttered grimly. "It's over... It won't happen anymore..."
"No... Y/n... Stay away," he continued to whimper, "I cannot do this again! Don't come any closer! Please!"
Knowing how ruthless this man once was, you could tell he had gone through terrible things to be breaking down this easily before you had found him unconscious in the corner of the street in Rome. "Boss, I got rid of it," you knelt to his level, watching him curl up within himself just a foot away from you. "It's gone. Believe me."
You stretched an arm out towards him, but he crawled away in fear. Sighing in defeat, you stood up and walked away towards the kitchen table, leaving him at the dark doorway.
"I won't force you. After all, this is your house. Take your time," you gently said to him before leaving him be and continuing with the chores.
It may have taken him hours to stand up from the spot and sit opposite to you across the little kitchen table, but at least you were glad that he had finally decided to trust you. You had noticed him flinch a few times while you poured him his coffee and brought him something to eat. He seemed to be overly cautious. Needless to say, it was obvious he had suffered a lot.
Dressed cozily in a funny-looking pair of pyjamas, Diavolo inexpressively grumbled a question to you. "What are you reading?"
"Hm?" you tilted your head up from the book you had been holding. "Oh, this? 'Learn Fluent Italian In 30 Days' ... Only, I've been reading this for about half-a-year and I haven't gotten anywhere near fluent. Do you want to listen to how much I've learnt? I want to know if I've progressed at all."
"I'd rather not. Don't want to listen to you butcher my language."
Diavolo nasally chuckled, perhaps the first genuinely warm gesture he had ever shown you. You couldn't help but reveal a smile too, glad that despite whatever was left to uncover, you could start off with a more comfortable note.
"Boss," you said and caught his attention, "I'm glad you survived."
"Did I, Y/n?" he chuckled again, a little grim this time. "From what I can remember, I've died a thousand times... At this point, I'm just waiting anxiously for my next death."
"But Boss I-"
"Diavolo's... fine... Y/n... You can call me by my...... name."
'Diavolo? To call him by his name... Surely it wasn't even his real name, was it?
"Six months, is it? It felt longer... all those times I kept dying. He got me... He really did." Diavolo burst out into a peal of sarcastic laughter, his eyes shrouded in the shadows of his unkempt hair and the low lighting of the room. As he stopped, the draughty wind of the night blowing in from the woods added to your discomfort. Boss was disappointed; and you wanted to fix that.
'Why?'
"So?" he asked. "Who leads now?"
"That same kid; the one who put you through endless loop of death... Don Gio... he calls himself."
He smiled wryly. "Don... Gio... it seems. Well, I'm glad he didn't change the name Passione."
'Had those events humbled the feared Boss?'
"What is your intention?"
The question caught you off guard. "I'm... sorry?"
Diavolo placed his coffee mug on the table and looked away from you out the window. "Why are you here? In my house... In Italy... You could have left for your homeland..."
With a gulp of the warm coffee followed by a slow sigh, you shuffled your feet under the kitchen table, preparing to speak. "I was attacked... by Giorno Giovanna."
His eyes returned to you. "Giov-... His... stand?"
"Gold Experience Requiem. I know. I don't know what the exact effects of his stand are, but somehow Hell's Bell managed to negate all its effects. It took me a while, but I managed to figure out at least something vague about it."
"How do you know?"
"Well, I know my stand... I just had to experiment a few t-"
"No, how do you know about the Requiem? I never told you."
A brief transient silence later, you replied. "I've been investigating. I know about the Requiem; and the stand arrow."
His widened eyes told you he was beyond surprised.
"I don't mind it that you stabbed me, B-... Diavolo... Hell's Bell has kept me alive so far, thanks to you. But you could've at least told me you were doing that..." you chuckled at him as you stood up to place the coffee mugs in the sink. "I don't know how Hell's Bell did it, but I do know that Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience and my stand work on equal and opposite principles. Specifically speaking, he uses the energy of life; while I use death."
"But isn't death just supposed to be a lack of energy?" he questioned.
"Yes, it is. But Hell's Bell doesn't emit any energy. Rather, it pulls it all away." You moved to the window to close it, continuing to speak. "She acts like a void, sucking in as much life energy as she wants; I don't know if things can get destroyed inside her after she takes them, but I do know she can use them."
When your stand appeared next to you on your command, Diavolo flinched so hard he almost fell off his chair in shock. The sheer dark aura of the figure was so different than what he knew from before. The horns were strangely oriented; a tail he had not seen before greeted him floating behind; the face was no more just a pair of bright yellow eyes; they were hollow dark holes framed by what looked like a vague skull that shined like gold.
"It seems," you declared, "that I've acquired the Hell's Bell Requiem."
"Che diavolo..."
"During the tussle for the Requiem arrow," you continued, "Bell must have accidentally stabbed herself with it, I'm assuming. Either way, after Giovanna's Gold Experience Requiem hit me, I woke up and found myself stuck in a loop of an accident; an accident that was definitely leading to my death. Strangely, whenever the moment I was supposed to die would approach, it would never end... Every time that truck sped in my direction, the entire scene would just... start all over... Again and again..."
"Sounds similar to the death loop I went through, except you didn't get to die..."
His arms folded against the chest, you noted his bitterness, likely because he had gone through the agony, unlike you. What could you say, you were only lucky.
"Exactly. I would always fail to draw out my stand when it happened. But when I finally did... When Hell's Bell shielded me from that truck, the loop stopped. I was apparently unconscious after that, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital."
He watched you suddenly pull a box of cigarettes out of the pocket of your outfit and questioningly scanned you.
"That's all I have," you giggled pulling out one of the cheap cigarettes and proceeding to fiddle with the matchbox. "No money, no job; I can only steal occasionally."
His voice muffled through the cigarette as he lit it. "Stealing? What about that man of yours... The one who hated me with his dear life."
You couldn't help the amused laughter. "Danny. Yeah. I couldn't contact anyone."
Before he could ask again, Diavolo watched you walk towards a nearby shelf, shuffle through a few papers, and return with a newspaper in your hand that you slammed at the kitchen table.
It was evident to him why you had been there. Right above the blurry and dull picture of you trying to hide half of your face was the news headline written in dark bold in Italian.
"You're... a wanted criminal..."
"When I woke up in the hospital, the police were already there," you took a drag of the cigarette as you spoke. "They found all my belongings; my passport, my license, my cell... It's a good thing I took precautions when coming to Italy. They couldn't link me to any gang; only my country of origin. Luckily enough, the pictures of me that they published turned out to be of really poor quality, so a couple covers help me hide easily in the crowd."
"But if they cannot link you to Vespa or Passione, then why are you still here? And why have you been declared wanted?"
The sigh let out a thick cloud of smoke from your lips. "Although I have no proof, I'm sure it's that kid behind it."
"Giovanna?"
"Giovanna," you confirmed. "When I woke up in the hospital, I had no articulate memory of what had happened. They left me under supervision for longer until they could help me find out what was wrong with me. By the time I had regained my memory in about three days, the police had somehow found out that I was related to the incidents at the hotel in Naples and the cottage at the highway to Rome, the night when you - er... Doppio seemingly killed Doriane, so they started interrogating me. It seems to me that they received a tip from somewhere."
"Giovanna..." Diavolo mumbled.
"Quite likely," you added, "Giovanna or his man tipped off the cops. He must've received the news from somewhere that I hadn't died... Or... Wasn't dying."
"So, it's safe to assume that he is aware that you're alive?"
You chuckled. "I'd rather say unsafe... I've been trying to find ways to contact my people for help, but he's got his men everywhere. And he isn't attacking me. Rather... Waiting for me to come out..."
"Essentially, he's trapped you."
Without a warning, you unbuttoned your shirt halfway your chest and slipped the sleeves to reveal your arms. Healed cuts and bruises across your shoulders showed themselves, amongst many others that went down way below till the waist. some scars spanned the entirety of your neck,. some had left contorted wrinkles on your skin.
"The last time I encountered a fight was three months ago. I've stopped trying to contact anyone," you said to him, beginning to put your outfit back on. "Ever since that fight on Rome, I've been searching for clues, finding out about Passione and the kid, trying to research my own stand. And then a week ago, I had a breakthrough."
Judging from his silence, you knew Diavolo wanted you to elaborate, and so you did.
"Hell's Bell may work a little different, but her basic principle remains the same as that of Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience - life energy; or lack thereof. Giorno's attack left me with bodily observations of what his ability could do, and I managed to deduce that his stand can basically induce life transiently into non-living objects."
"You're not wrong..." Diavolo hissed through the smoke as he said.
"Good to know," you nodded. "When I moved into this house about three months ago, I found a few strands of your hair during cleaning," you said, producing onto the table the strands of long fuchsia hair from the pocket of your outfit. "It may sound odd, but, I literally summoned you through my stand with the help of your hair."
You weren't wrong at all, he thought. That was indeed his hair.
'But...'
"Summoned me? I don't get it."
"It's... Well... Complicated... But, in essence, through the cells in your hair that I found, I could sense the effect of Gold Experience Requiem going on. All I had to do was somehow negate it using Hell's Bell. And you would return to the place where it all originally started."
Diavolo scissored the ash off his burning cigarette, humming at your statement. "It's hard for me to comprehend, but, I do get that... That's how you found me."
You nodded. "I had to drive back to the Colosseum. That's where I found you; unconscious, by the canal. You were unconscious for around two days. We were lucky no one thought us to be suspicious. Had Giovanna's men been around, we would have been dead by now."
"Y/n..."
His sudden addressing surprised you a bit. "Yes?"
"Why can't I summon my stand?"
"Can't you? I didn't know about that... I managed to call out my stand easily; maybe you n-"
The aggressive slap that Diavolo had thrown against the kitchen table startled you. Clearly, he was infuriated.
But his voice sounded too calm.
"You've been very lucky, Y/n. I have to admit this, shamelessly... I envy you; so much... You even managed to get the Requiem. You managed to dodge the effects of that stand too... Tch! Maybe my fate has been pathetic lately after all."
"Boss, I-"
"Coul you let me be for a while," he sternly said, "Y/n?"
Obediently nodding, without a word you left him alone at the table, quickly sprinting upstairs.
As he heard your thumping footsteps fade away into the distance, Diavolo softly sighed out his cigarette breath. His eyes scanned the surroundings of his home that looked just a little less familiar to him. The newspaper layers from the window panes had been removed and curtained; the table cloth had been changed, containers in the rack had been shuffled to an order unknown to him; the creaky, leaky faucet had been gotten rid of and in its place was now a brand new one that released the smoothest of streams and didn't make any sound; couches had been cleaned, covered and rearranged - it was proper to say that his house looked rather homely for the first time. Against his liking, though, there was too much of light and too less of space; something he kept so before in regards to his privacy. Not one to venture out in the open unguarded, Diavolo wasn't used to that much of 'homeliness' around. Comfort could get you caught easily. After all, his very idea was to keep himself hidden at all times, if possible, forever.
Apart from all that, the biggest difference was that there were too many people inside his house that evening.
Even though Doppio's presence alongside him made him feel like he had company, the only company that he actually preferred, he knew the truth well that it was only one human around - himself. And he liked it that way. The comfort of knowing that he didn't exist was what helped him sleep at night without worry- only surrounded by the walls of the house he stood in. All that had changed when Doppio had decided to bring the woman in for a night's security. As he had been watching it happen through the young boy's eyes, he had desperately wanted to kill her that instant.
Why he didn't do so, he couldn't answer that either.
The amount of trust he had put into her while revealing his true identity had been spontaneous, and the night he had knocked her unconscious, he had planned on taking her life away; but the next morning he had tried so hard to construct a plausible answer as to why he hadn't done it, it had left him hurting in the head.
That was the biggest and the most stupid risk he had ever taken and he hadn't the slightest idea why.
None of it matters anyway, anymore, he thought to himself.
As of now, he was more concerned about what to expect from you.
'What are you thinking, Y/n L/n?'
~~~
"You should put up a more cheerful face, you know," Volta slapped the Rossi's back and said, "if you're going to take up a job at the L/n's. They're fond of fooling around a lot."
"Yes," he bluntly replied and got back to counting his luggage when Volta hummed and smiled wide. "Until I manage to get into the manor, expect to hear very little from me. I need to make sure they cannot track me back to you. Everything I send will be via mail."
"Fair enough," Vittorio agreed. "I'm willing to wait longer. After all, this is all for our ultimate goal! Isn't it Alesso?"
Alesso glared at Volta a little different than usual. "No, it is your goal to take over Passione, not mine. And my name isn't Alesso. It's Rafael. Did you forget?"
A twisted smile crept into Vittorio's lips, that now seemed to be adorning an unhealed scar that the Rossi was sure that he hadn't seen before.
"Did you hurt yourself, Signore?" Alesso asked him blankly. "It looks fairly recent."
Volta answered in a casual tone. "Oh, this? Must've happened when I went to talk to Polpo earlier this week."
"For signing into Passione? So you had a fight with the guy?"
Smoothing his fingers over the wound across his lips, Vittorio smile faded into a lopsided smirk. "Yeah, you could say... I ran into an unforeseen scuffle."
"So you're officially a member of Passione," Alesso turned away from him and said, beginning to push the cart on which his luggage bags had been placed. "I hope you keep your promise."
"Of course, of course, I'll make sure no one gets to know your location. And in return..."
"I'll make sure the L/n's are placed under your supervision. I remember that well."
"Don't forget the info you promised. I'm counting on you. That link you told me about needs more proof."
"We shouldn't be talking about that over here." Alesso proceeded to walk away from Vittorio, but the latter called on his name, catching his attention and having him turn back for a moment.
"You never told me the Capo's name. You've discovered so much, do you know his name at least?"
The Rossi nodded his head side to side. "Boss... That's the only name we all know of."
"Boss, is it..."
With no other word spoken, Alesso Rossi turned around and continued to walk towards the gates that led into the airport, disappearing into the thick crowd.
Volta watched him leave and clicked his tongue. "Not even a goodbye, what a grim guy." He turned around and took a seat in his car next to his driver.
The car sped away from the gates of the airport and disappeared into the traffic. Vittorio Volta couldn't wait to explore his newfound powers. The plan for the dreams he had could now finally be put into action.
~~~
Curious about the shuffling sounds, Diavolo walked up the stairs and stood at the doorway of the room that once belonged to him.
The buckles fell from your hands and clattered to the floor as he startled you with his sudden presence.
"Oh... Did you need something?" you said, struggling to bend and reach for one of the buckles that had slipped under the drawer table.
Watching you grunt and curse incoherently as you contorted yourself and failed to reach the article underneath, he decided to walk inside to help you. Tilting the desk effortlessly to let room for your arm, he responded.
"Do I need a reason to come in?"
An awkward laugh escaped you. "I don't think so... It's your house after all."
You saw him notice the clothes on your hand. "Er; these are yours. I had to take them off; they were dirty..."
Now that he remembered, he was wearing an unfamiliar outfit on waking up. He watched you fluster just a little bit, understanding that it was you who had taken off all his clothes.
Following a transient silence, you walked to the little closet to place his clean clothes and hang his heavy belts and chains on the hooks, all the while trying to ignore the feeling of his eyes burning holes through the back of your chest. He may not have said anything yet, but he had something in mind.
As you did too.
"It's funny," you chuckled, earning an interrogative hum from him, after which you continued. "This was where you knocked me out that night... Or was it Doppio?"
Leaning against the door frame, he watched you with an uncomfortable silence.
"Say, Boss... Do you really trust me that much?"
He sent you a confused stare. "What do you mean?"
Turning away from the closet, you coldly looked into his eyes, asking again. "Isn't your identity your biggest secret? You kept your family in the dark for it... Took away so many lives to maintain the secrecy... Attempted to kill your daughter with your own hands... You even went to great lengths to fake your own death."
You knew too much, he thought. That, and he knew exactly what you were trying to ask.
"Why, then, did you tell me everything? And spared my life?"
Stiff from the awareness of you walking directly towards him, Diavolo's shoulders pushed against the door. Sooner than he knew, you were standing a mere half of an arm's length away. He wasn't used to the intimidation that was, on top of everything, fairly new in you. Strangely enough, your eyes seemed very foreign to him. Had six months changed you that much?
"Truthfully, I was going to kill you the moment you saw what you shouldn't have," somehow preventing the stutter, he answered. "But, I figured I could use you."
"I see..." you mumbled. "Of course... Makes sense... Boss..."
For a moment he thought he heard dejection in your voice. Truth be told, he had outright lied to you. The reality was that he trusted you. Blindly. And however hard he tried to find the reason for it, he failed to make up a plausible one. Even now, he was finding himself a little too eased out with you around; furthermore without the presence of his stand.
'What in the world is going on with me...'
"Oh, this reminds me. I wanted to talk to you about something..." your hands pulled open the drawer to the side and took out an old soiled envelope sized as wide as a textbook. The look in his eyes when he recognized it was exhilarating to you.
"I haven't been doing nothing for the past six months, come on now," with an unusual cheer you said to him, holding out the contents of the envelope and then throwing them on to the floor. "Now, I was unlucky to have never met my grandparents from either side of the family, but, I'm sure I recognise the faces here correctly. Not to mention, I was made sure to know what my family's full names were, till at least last four generations. Even the ones who are dead."
The papers were scattered at his feet, but he didn't have to look at them to realise what you were referring to.
"How was it doing business with my grandfather?"
For the first time, the overlord found himself sweating out cold and helpless. Finally giving in to his nerve-wracked stutter, he mustered a few words onto his mouth.
"You... You weren't supposed to know this..."
"No one was... After all, who would take you seriously if they knew that you technically bought Passione?"
He choked in fear. Oh, what a sight it was for you.
A sudden peal of laughter painted on his face the most puzzled expression ever - a hilarious mix of terrified and baffled. He was out of his wits, unable to defend himself with his stand, which for some God-forsaken reason was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm genuinely surprised! Where even did you get all that money?" you responded amidst the chuckles. And I'm not really disappointed about it. Don't get me wrong; I still hate the fact that you killed my brother over a betrayal. You could have let him off with just a beating! I mean after all that my family did to you!"
He knew well that playful innocence in your voice was fake; in fact, all of you seemed so made up all of a sudden. He shouldn't have a reason to be afraid. And yet he was, trembling down to his toes.
'Dov'è King Crimson?'
"Well, anyway," you stepped closer to him, "you should stop trying to summon it. You'll never be able to."
The look on his face was quite delectable.
Even though the room had been quite brightly lit, the aura around you seemed to be eating away the light, engulfing you in darkness. The only thing now visible to him was your bright gold-tinted irises, glaring into his dull emerald ones, instilling uneasiness into his sheer existence. He never had been this weak before.
When another set of eyes, smaller than yours, began staring at him from your forehead, everything fell into place, to his horror.
"King... Crimson... How...?"
"I have a deal for you, Diavolo," you uttered with an eerie tone to your voice, suddenly sprinting so close to him that only an inch or two were left in between your faces. Tightly gripping on his shoulders, you pushed yourself on him against the door with the most widely opened eyes he had ever seen from you. "Let's take back what you lost. What we lost! Your King Crimson, and my Hell's Bell Requiem! Together we could be undefeatable!"
"Cosa st- Tch! Give me back my stand!"
"Oh, don't be so bitter about it! I merely borrowed it for a while! In fact, this is the reason you're alive right now. Had it not been for me, you would still be dying."
'No way,' he thought. 'Was this nothing but just another one of his pathetic deaths?'
"Give me back my stand Y/n! Right now!" Somehow mustering up his remaining courage he opposed you.
The grip on his shoulders tightened. He whimpered at the sensation of your fingernails digging into his skin. This was totally unlike you. A change of character over a span of a few months? That couldn't stand as an explanation. Something very bizarre had happened to you. Or was this all because of the effect of the Gold Experience Requiem?
"That's too bad, Diavolo. If I do that, then you'll die... Again," the mockery in your tone irked him as you spoke, continuing to look into his eyes unphased. "Ever since you stabbed me with that arrow, I've wanted you by my side. I could feel that attraction. We needed to trust each other. We needed to be together. That's why all of this has happened. Don't you think?"
"Cos'hai che non va?"
"Tell me the truth, did you never feel it? The pull? We had to work together... To this very moment... You and I together could outshine every single human. You know you did... Join me... And we can make sure we succeed."
"No... No... No!! Stay away from me!! No!! No!!"
"Then I guess you and I will have to die together..."
"Boss."
Like a cornered rat, he cowered into himself against the door that had been shut, preventing him from any way out. It wasn't like he could outrun you either, he knew better. You were stronger.
"Who are you?"
Y/n L/n, 25, only smiled at his words, before summoning her stand, followed by feeling herself fade away into darkness.
~x~